The Seven Years' War was a world war fought between 1754 and 1763, the main conflict occurring in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763. It involved every European great power of the time except the Ottoman Empire, spanning five continents, and affected Europe, the Americas, West Africa, India, and the Philippines. The conflict split Europe into two coalitions, led by Great Britain on one side and France on the other. For the first time, aiming to curtail Britain and Prussia's ever-growing might, France formed a grand coalition of its own, which ended with failure as Britain rose as the world's predominant power, altering the European balance of power...... George Alfred Henty (8 December 1832 – 16 November 1902) was a prolific English novelist and war correspondent.He is best known for his historical adventure stories that were popular in the late 19th century. His works include The Dragon & The Raven (1886), For The Temple (1888), Under Drake's Flag (1883) and In Freedom's Cause (1885).Biography--G.A.Henty was born in Trumpington, near Cambridge. He was a sickly child who had to spend long periods in bed. During his frequent illnesses he became an avid reader and developed a wide range of interests which he carried into adulthood. He attended Westminster School, London, and later Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge,where he was a keen sportsman. He left the university early without completing his degree to volunteer for the Army Hospital Commissariat when the Crimean War began. He was sent to the Crimea and while there he witnessed the appalling conditions under which the British soldier had to fight. His letters home were filled with vivid descriptions of what he saw. His father was impressed by his letters and sent them to The Morning Advertiser newspaper which printed them. This initial writing success was a factor in Henty's later decision to accept the offer to become a special correspondent, the early name for journalists now better known as war correspondents. Shortly before resigning from the army as a captain in 1859 he married Elizabeth Finucane. The couple had four children. Elizabeth died in 1865 after a long illness and shortly after her death Henty began writing articles for the Standard newspaper. In 1866 the newspaper sent him as their special correspondent to report on the Austro-Italian War where he met Giuseppe Garibaldi. He went on to cover the 1868 British punitive expedition to Abyssinia, the Franco-Prussian War, the Ashanti War, the Carlist Rebellion in Spain and the Turco-Serbian War.He also witnessed the opening of the Suez Canal and travelled to Palestine, Russia and India.... Walter Stanley Paget (1863-1935), the youngest and perhaps the least artistically talented of the three Paget brothers, held a gold medal from the Royal Academy of Art, and, like his brothers, illustrated books and magazines in late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century London, signing himself as "Wal Paget": His eldest brother, Henry, attended the Royal Academy Schools and worked for The Sphere as a "special artist" during the Balkan War of 1912-13. Walter had worked for this magazine, too, in London during the Boer War, turning the rough sketches sent by the paper's "specials" in South Africa into complete illustrations for publication. Walter's second brother, Sidney, also attended the Academy Schools. . . . Walter Paget's art was usually workmanlike but for the most part uninspired. (Arabian Nights Books [online source]) Walter Paget "also . . . produc[ed] coloured illustrations of pretty girls, rather feeble rustic interiors, and easy-to-view scenes of country life, soldiers and girls, and courting couples. He had a keen sense of correct costume for his figures, as shown to advantage in many of his illustrations, for example to Robinson Crusoe in the early 1890s." (mrholmes.com [online source])........